Thanks for the pictures, I have a better idea what we are talking about now.
Forgive me (and correct me) if I am reading too much into a mockup, but it looks to me as though this approach would work well if: -all tasks are short enough that there's no significant risk that the day ends with a task partially completed -all important tasks have a due date -all or nearly all tasks are done on their due date, not before. It also appears to me as though there is some risk that some tasks do not get done on their due date, and that these overdue tasks are then assigned a new, later due date. In fact, - would anticipate that a review of the calendar view would be useful in identifying dates on which too many tasks are due than can be accomplished. In this case I would suppose that you might reschedule some of these tasks for a different (later?) due date. If I misread your intentions please disregard the discussion that follows. But if I have it right, it sounds as though what you have is a dated to-do list. If this is what's happening, then your important tasks are assigned a due date not because they are in fact due on that date but because they are important and you would like to get them done on that date. I believe that this method of task management tends to lower productivity by channeling resources away from what's important and into what's urgent. - also believe that it creates a need for a daily unproductive task of scanning and rescheduling overdue tasks and another frequent unproductive task of identifying overcommitted days and rescheduling tasks off of those days. I will no go further into the discussion of the downsides of dated to-do lists as David Allen has thoroughly presented it in "getting things done" - but let me ask you (or other proponents of this flavor of calendar view) whether the view would still be useful if the following GTD procedures were in place: - due date is not the day you would like to do a task but rather the last possible day for doing it - most tasks are done long before their due date - most important tasks do not have a due date but are "do this as soon as possible against all the other things I have to do" - some tasks take more than a day to complete. Again, thanks for the mockups as the discussion is now much more focused for me. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T -----Original Message----- From: pottster <[email protected]> Sender: [email protected] Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2011 03:43:01 To: <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: [MLO] Re: *not* calendar view For me, this is one the problems with a proposed calendar view. There is no consensus about what exactly is required. Some people want a Gantt chart for project management, others want a PIM type calendar view to marry tasks to appointments, others want to balance their task load across days, etc etc. My issue is not only lack of consensus but also development wouldn't stop at "views" and users would want calendars to include ever increasing functionality that would best be done in a PIM, a project manager, a dedicated calendar app or a spreadsheet. I'm afraid this would be a blind alley which would stall development of other, more important, core functionality. There are too many alternative calendar solutions to attract new MLO users or retain old ones. It would be a major waste of time. Having said all that, if calendars were view only, it could be a compromise way forward. I for one have nailed my colours to the mast and already given a mock up of what I would like to see [ https://groups.google.com/d/topic/mylifeorganized/OXyz7ToQMsA/discussion ]. It would be useful if other calendar proponents did the same. At least we would know what we're debating. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized?hl=en.
